Students Spread Random Acts of Kindness

Kindness was spreading for the young, old and animal when the University of Wisconsin-Stout’s Involvement Center hosted their first ever Random Acts of Kindness Week. Each day, Monday through Thursday, Feb. 12-15, the Involvement Center hoseted a new event centered around students executing random acts of kindness in different ways.

Junior Abby Muraski, StoutReach specialist for the Involvement Center, explained the significance of the events. “[On] Monday we had our Wall of Kindness, where people could write down ideas for acts of kindness they could do and check off the ones they already did to start the week off and think about what they could do during this week. Tuesday was Paws to Serve day, where students could make dog toys for dogs at the Dunn County Humane Society out of old T-shirts,” said Muraski.

There were also tables set up for students to make Valentine’s Day cards for the elderly at American Lutheran Communities here in Menomonie. “It’s a great way to lift their spirits in case they were feeling lonely on Valentine’s Day and let them know that someone is thinking about them,” said Muraski, “Wednesday [was] our Conversation Ball Pit day where we [talked] about the root causes of kindness, what kindness means to people and how we can implement that better on campus.”

Thursday wrapped up the whole week with two activities. The first was called Shred Your Doubts, where students wrote down any discouraging thoughts they may be having and put them through a paper shredder. The other activity was called Relaxation Space in the Memorial Student Center’s White Pine room. “In the Relaxation Space we have yoga balls, yoga mats, coloring books and relaxing music to just kind of take a moment to be kind to yourself throughout the day and rest your mind. It’s important to remind yourself that you are valuable and you are worth kindness too,” said Muraski.

According to Muraski, Random Acts of Kindness Week wasn’t intended to be about Valentine’s Day, it just happened to fall on this time of the year.

Whether or not you were able to attend any of the events during Random Acts of Kindness Week, organizers said kindness is greatly appreciated by campus and community members any week.